It has been another busy year. There have been many new challenges and opportunities for me to expand my research interests and lecturing to dentists in different locations on various topics.

The most fun has been a recent trip to Italy to participate in the American Dental Society of Europe meeting in Florence. The photo was taken at sunset overlooking the Arno river in Florence. They are a great bunch of dentists who are very forward thinking and have the rare opportunity to get some of the best speakers from the USA to their meetings. They have had annual meetings for 123 years so are a very established group. It was an honour to be asked to present at the meeting and an opportunity to catch up with dentist friends from Europe. I will soon be the first non-American or European to be a member of the society which will be fun, I enjoy their meetings so much and was honoured to be offered the opportunity to join.

In September I have the privilege to be presenting to the inaugural Diploma in Implant Dentistry orientation course in Sydney. This program is a new initiative between the Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh) and the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. It will be, in my opinion, a wonderful opportunity for these students of implant dentistry to gain a qualification that will give Australians confidence that their dentist has undergone rigourous training and testing in implant dentistry. It is a wonderful initiative by the colleges and for me a challenge to develop educational material that will consolidate the fundamentals of what I have learnt over the last 28 years working with dental implants.

In October I will be presenting at the Quintessence International Symposium in Sydney. This is the biggest dental meeting of the year in Australia. There will be 14 international presenters and only four Australians so I see it as an honour to be one of the four. I have been pioneering a method of titanium welding in implant dentistry that is new to the English speaking world, the Italians have been doing it for years but it is new for us. I have been working with this welding device for about three years and it is a tremendous tool. I hope to inspire my colleagues to use this system and as well as lecturing I will be running a hands on workshop.

Last week I was re-elected to the Federal ADA council for a second term of two years. It is such a boost to have the support of my colleagues in the ADA to continue this important work. The ADA will continue to warn Australians about the profit orientated activities of the large private health insurers and the poor value extra cover represents with most insurers. More on that in my next blog (btw sorry for taking so long to write this one, life seems to leave no time for blogs!)